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MOBILE DIGITAL RESOURCES (MDR) MODEL

mEQUITY Case

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CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION 3

2. MOBILE LEARNING - CHARACTERISTICS AND DESIGN PRINCIPLES 4

3. MOBILE LEARNING - MOBILE DEVICES AND PLATFORMS 14

4. AUGMENTED REALITY TECHNOLOGY 19

5. THE SPECIFICS OF PRESENTING DIGITAL RESOURCES AND THE ACCESS TO THEM FROM MOBILE DEVICES 24

6. THE SPECIFICS OF THE TRAINING OF THE TARGET GROUPS 30

7. IMPLEMENTATION OF TWO EDUCATIONAL SCENARIOS – MDR MODEL mEQUITY CASE

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1. INTRODUCTION

The development of the conceptual model combines the activities of team members and

teachers, dealing with trainees from disadvantaged groups of people. They implement their

knowledge and experience for defining the objectives of training by means of mobile devices,

for selection of appropriate methods and techniques to be used in the process of training and

preparation of the corresponding tools for diagnostics of the acquired knowledge.

The development of the conceptual model is based on:

The specifics of the training of the target groups;

The specifics of the mobile platforms;

Studying the educational capabilities of the mobile devices for learning;

The specifics of presenting digital resources and the access to them from mobile

devices in all popular formats: text, images, video, audio;

The tools for diagnostics of the results of training by mobile devices for the

different target groups.

Identification of the basic components of the conceptual model: Acquaintance with the

present practices in training by mobile devices. Focusing on the theory of training by mobile

devices and its use in practice, the motivational factors, and the strong and weak points of this

type of training.

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2. MOBILE LEARNING - CHARACTERISTICS AND DESIGN

PRINCIPLES

2.1. MOBILE LEARNING

Mobile learning (mLearning) may be defined as the provision of education and training on

mobile devices. However, to facilitate this mobility, the mobile device should meet several

requirements. The learner must be able to use the mobile device wirelessly, standing and with

minimal effort. Moreover, the device should be small enough to be held in one hand and

should be easy to take along (Dye, 2007). Examples of such devices are smartphones, mobile

phones, tablets, iPads and similar devices.

There never was a technology as widely available to citizens as mobile telephony. This

technology connects people working at different places and having different education and

learning paths with opportunities for expert and peer feedback and co-learning. Mobile

technology offers unprecedented possibilities for combining the strengths of formal and non-

formal education and professional internship. For the first time in the history of the use of

technology in education and training, there is a technology that will cost the learners nothing,

because they own the technology to be used.

The mLearning is emerging as a new sector in education and training provision, side by side

with face-to-face education, distance education and e-learning. We can say that we have been

in the process of acceptance of mLearning since the beginning of the 21st century, along with

3G/UMTS and Smartphone. The new mobile learning arena imposes significant new design

requirements for training programs - the ways they are structured and maintained. The

effective mLearning imposes specific usability requirement. The assessment of the mobile

learning in terms of learning outcomes is similar in all VET systems but techniques in

mLearning are specific. The validation of the assessed formal and non-formal mLearning

should be done in accordance with the common European principles. The quality assurance

should be an integral part of the management of mLearning providing institutions.

Mobile learning differs from electronic learning (e-learning) because it uses smartphones,

mobile phones, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), palmtops and similar devices instead of

the desktop and laptop computers of e-learning. This means that mobile learning, unlike e-

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learning, uses devices which citizens are used to carrying everywhere with them, devices

which a man can carry in a pocket or a woman can carry in a handbag and uses devices which

citizens regard as personal, friendly, cheap and easy to use. A further difference is the

mobility of the learner in mobile learning. The mobility of the learner is seen with commuters

on buses, trains and metros, with learners on the job for instance on a crane or at a base station

and with learners at art galleries, museums or tourism locations. A major difference is in the

type of technology used which means that there are types of learning that mobile learning can

do that the other sectors of education and training (face-to face, distance education and e-

learning|) cannot do or cannot do as well as mobile learning: context sensitive and location

sensitive learning materials and augmented reality.

A promising approach to convince students to use their mobile devices for educational

purposes comes from the more user-centered studies on mlearning, which propose to ‘thread

innovative uses of technology into the existing fabric of behaviour’ (Pettit &Kukulsksa-

Hulme, 2007). The existing pattern of students’ use of mobile devices identified forms the

basis for mobile education. Furthermore, when designing mlearning it is important to do this

from the perspective of the learning process and the learner and not from the perspective of

mobile technology. That is, the decision to use a mobile device to deliver training or

information should not be driven by the mere availability of the mobile device, but should be

based on the added value of this device for the students’ learning processes.

The use of mobile devices and related to them digital resources for the purposes of

educational and social integration is an innovative solution of a need, which has arisen in

society:

• Mobile technologies give freedom both to teachers for complex presentation, and to

students for extended study of a considered problem in accordance with their educational

needs, what, according to the constructivist views, is a condition for manifestation of

independence and initiative.

• The application of these technologies overcomes the limitations related to time, place

and volume of the school material. The students can use these technologies both in the

classroom and out of it in convenient time, and they can access a wealth of information

resources.

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• The use of these technologies does not require from the students preparation in

advance. The interactive multimedia products are usually complied with their intuitive

perceptions and their personal preferences and offer very good possibilities for building up

steady interest and lasting motivation.

The benefit of this type of innovative learning is justified by the fact that the students

willingly and enthusiastically accept everything new, related to technologies. The news in the

field of technologies, applied to education, lead to raised motivation for active participation in

the process of learning, considerable improvement of the process of memorizing the school

material and, owing to the use of more senses, to possibilities for facilitating the learning

process for disadvantaged people, what makes education more effective.

2.2. INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN GUIDELINES FOR MOBILE LEARNING

1. Cognitive load theory and multi-media learning

Cognitive load theory and multimedia learning are both based on two basic principles which

underlie the cognitive processes which operate in supporting or inhibiting human learning.

First, the theories make a distinction between working memory and long-term memory. These

two types of memory form a complimentary partnership, although they work in different

ways. In working memory all cognitive processing occurs, but it has a very limited capacity

and could be easily overloaded. These limitations of working memory should be taken into

account, when designing courses. Second, the theories propose the existence of two channels

of processing information in working memory: visual and audio. Being a sub-component of

working memory, each of these channels has a limited capacity and both should be used to

make learning more efficient.

Split attention principle

• Focus attention and avoid split attention principle (Contiguity principle)

• Place corresponding printed words and graphics near each other.

• Integrate explanatory text close to related visuals on pages and screens (split attention

effect)

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• Place text explaining diagram near the diagram and provide additional cues (lines,

arrows, circles to draw attention to relevant parts of content)

• Text and related diagrams should not be separated on a page or screen

• If you have a group including both novices and advanced students neglect the split

attention principle and place the text under the diagram, not integrated with it.

Modality principle

• Use both words and illustrations or graphs.

• Explain diagrams with words presented in audio narration.

• Use audio for learners with a low level of prior knowledge.

• Only use diagrams and audio if diagrams and/or text require explanation (i.e., only in a

case they do not provide self-explanation).

• Use text rather than audio when learners need reference to content.

• Provide text as a backup for audio explanations for learners with hearing impairments.

Redundancy principle

• Keep content down to essentials.

• Avoid presenting words as narration and identical text in the presence of graphics.

• Eliminate extraneous visuals, text and audio.

• If a diagram is self-explanatory do not add a text to it.

These guidelines do not apply when:

• there are no pictures;

• the learner has difficulties processing the pictures and words. This

• might be the case with mobile learning; and

• the learner might have difficulty processing words.

Segmenting, sequencing and learner pacing principle

• Teach system components before teaching the complete process

• Present and visually segregate each component in context of the whole

process/system.

• Give learners control over pacing.

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• Replace for novice learners some practice problems with worked-out examples.

• Use a variation of worked-out examples to foster far transfer.

• Ask students to explore and explain examples.

• Provide practice exercises that require learners to process information in a job realistic

context (Encoding-specificity principle).

Collaboration principle

• Make assignments that require collaboration among learners.

• Assign learners to groups in ways that optimise interaction.

2. Minimalism

The minimalism instructional design theory and practice is based basically on three key ideas

about how people learn: (a) instruction should not obstruct the natural way people learn when

they explore learning tasks; (b) people make errors and they learn from their mistakes; and (c)

when approaching learning tasks, people make use of their knowledge and skills in the

context of specific goals and expectations.

3. Technical Affordances Guidelines

There are a number of general purpose principles of mobile learning that should be taken into

account:

• Keep the information short, because mobile learning content is bite sized.

• Make sure the learning components are relatively short in duration.

• Do not use complex navigation and interfaces.

• Along linear navigation, consider the possibility of non-linear design.

• If you opt for non-linear navigation build a hierarchical structure of the content and

provide access through drill-down navigation via hypertext links.

• Provide a link to the launch screen on all inside screens.

• Try to avoid using large, detailed images and graphs

• Try to avoid horizontal and vertical scrolling.

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• If you use rich media, consider possible bandwidth issues.

• Make access easy. It is acceptable if you download information by PC first.

• Take into consideration the cost factors of accessing mobile learning content.

2.3. STRATEGIES FOR EFFECTIVE MOBILE LEARNING

Learner attention

When developing mobile learning materials it is important to consider the reactions students

should have when studying these materials. Foremost amongst these is learner attention. At

the start of each course, strategies need to be designed to get and hold learner attention. This

can be done by a carefully chosen phrase, as graphic or an illustration chosen and designed to

arouse and hold learner attention.

For learning to occur, the students’ attention must be directed to the learning materials which

must gain and hold their attention and direct their attention to the most important parts of the

mobile learning materials.

Learner focus

Mobile learning materials have to be designed to develop and support learner focus and

learner motivation. The reason for this is that mobile learning, like other forms of distance

education, does not usually take place in school classrooms or other locations specifically

designed for learning. It often takes place with the student as a solitary learner, removed from

the support of other students and of mentors, teachers and other educational personnel.

Relevant content

To maintain learner motivation and learner focus the mobile learning manager needs to ensure

that the mobile learning course content is relevant: relevant to the course objectives, relevant

to the students’ needs and relevant to the employment goals that are involved in the reasons

why the student is studying the course.

The relevance of the content to the needs of the students who are enrolled is crucial to the

success of any mobile learning courseware. It is often said that students will use mobile

learning when commuting by train or metro, in downtime at airports and other locations, and

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at home or the office, if the incentive is great enough. If the incentive is that they will achieve

their MBA or similar qualification, by this mobile learning study then the mobile learning will

be successful.

Interactivity in mobile learning

The mobile learning manager should always check that interactivity is included in the mobile

learning materials developed by his or her staff. Interactivity means that interaction is built

into the materials in a way that stimulates the student’s mind to be ready to perform

effectively the skills learned from the materials.

Successful educational interactivity has the following characteristics: it provides opportunities

for practice and for applying the material learned; the interactivity is precisely focused on the

learning task; feedback to the students’ interactivity is given to indicate correct or incorrect

responses.

Retention and transfer in mobile learning

The mobile learning manager needs to check that the mobile learning materials developed by

his or her staff focus on the retention by students of the knowledge learned. Accepted

methods for achieving this are the provision in the learning materials of opportunities for the

consolidation of what has been learned, opportunities for reflection on what is contained in

the course and the provision of assessment for testing the knowledge and skills learned, either

by self-assessment questions (SAQs), or tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) or assignments

that are marked by the mobile device (DMAs).

Location and context sensitive mobile learning materials

Using software, which overlays digital sight, sounds and interactions onto the physical world

to create immersive and interactive experiences and QR Codes, it is possible to produce

location and context sensitive course materials for mobile devices. QR Codes are a form of

visual data encoding that will support attaching device-readable data to the ambient

environment, allowing a location to provide information to the user.

Mixed modes of representation attempt to augment learners’ meaning-making by enabling

them to participate in a media-rich environment rather than viewing the learner as a consumer.

New environments and visualisations are created where the physical and digital interact and

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inform one another in real time. Learners are enabled to construct content and place it in

context using mobile devices so that other learners can access and add to it.

Context-sensitive learning is a new area that holds great potential for enabling learners to

engage in meaning-making through interactive practice. Context-sensitive systems are aware

of the activities of learners and can thus offer to give assistance.

2.4. PEDAGOGICAL FRAMEWORK

The introduction of new technology does not necessary implicate that existing pedagogies and

learning theories need to be revised. Rather than creating a new pedagogy for new

technologies, it better serves the practitioner to locate new technologies within proven

practices and models of teaching (Beetham& Sharpe, 2007). Learning theories such as

behaviourism, cognitivism, and constructivism, can provide guidelines on how to implement

mobile technology in such a way that it enhances the students’ learning processes.

From a behaviouristic perspective the learner has no influence on the standardised learning

process. An example of using mobile technology from a behavouristic perspective is a drill-

and-practice mathematics exercise through text messages on a mobile phone. The student

acquires a body of knowledge through exposure to and mastering of the “correct”

information. Experience of the world and individual interpretations of a body of knowledge

will not be deemed significant. It is assumed that students may passively acquire their

knowledge base from an authority figure or professor who lectures in a classroom type

environment.

From a cognitive perspective, the individual differences between learners are recognised and

the learning process should be adapted to the individual needs. An example of the use of

mobile technology from this perspective is using mobile phones to enable students to learn

whenever and wherever they prefer. From a constructivist perspective, learners actively

construct their knowledge through interaction with their environment and interaction with

others. The learner through his or her learning activities imposes meaning on the world. The

learners construct their knowledge and understanding through the learning experience, this

knowledge is constructed rather than discovered.

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Compelling examples of the implementation of constructivist principles with mobile

technologies come from a brand of learning experience termed ‘participatory simulations’,

where the learners themselves act out key parts in an immersive recreation of a dynamic

system. As a result of emerging technologies connectivism was proposed, which is not as

much a learning theory, but a pedagogical view of what should be learned and why.

(Verhagen, 2006) The core notion of connectivism is that the learning process must create

interconnections for knowledge that are distributed over many actual and virtual locations.

Using mobile devices can enhance the opportunity for making connections.

Some might suggest that mLearning technologies support individualism; others might say that

it facilitates the application of constructivist techniques where collaboration and team work is

enhanced and promoted. There is a need for a shared, progressive pedagogy for mobile

learning that will provide the scientific basis for networked and collaborative learning in both

a virtual and a virtual-augmented environment. It must accommodate different teacher and

learner perspectives, promote learner-centered environments and collaboration among

learners and between learners and educators and support ambient learning. The principles of

Constructivism along with the main tenets of connectivism will inform the development of a

pedagogy for a mobile learning course.

It should be noted, that besides learning theories, the different types of learning processes

students can engage in determine how mobile technology should be implemented to support

these processes. Learning processes in which information is studied independently, the mere

distribution of structured information is sufficient. Learning processes which involve the

acquisition of complex knowledge and skills require expert advice and performance support.

Learning processes related to the construction of new knowledge or ideas, require the

possibility of interacting with the environment and brainstorming with others. By basing the

design and use of mobile technology on one or more of the aforementioned learning theories

and processes, mobile technology will have a meaningful contribution to the learners’

performance and learning.

Most of the studies on the pedagogical aspects of mobile learning bring the discussion to and

maintain it at a very general, paradigmatic level as little attempt is made to move to a more

concrete learning design level (Copley 2007, Gaskel, 2007; Roschelle, Sharples& Chan, 2005;

Siemens, 2006; Sharples, Taylor &Vavoula, 2008). Reasoning about which of the theoretical

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paradigms – behaviourism, cognitivism, constructivism, or the recent, connectivism, is more

appropriate for mobile learning is certainly important to discuss. More important, however, is

to operationally define these positions in concrete instructional design steps, guidelines, and

structure of content, whose effectiveness, efficiency and appeal to students, is also a subject of

experimental investigation.

2.5. ASSESSMENTIN MOBILE LEARNING

It is important for the field of mobile learning that the assessment of students’ work should be

just as rigorous in mobile learning as in other forms of educational provision. In spite of the

dexterity of students today in data input referred to above it is unlikely that essay-type

questioning, a feature of many European universities, would be feasible as a form of

assessment in mobile learning. The reasons for this are the difficulties of data input for a

considerable amount of text and the area on a mobile phone screen available for assessment.

as illustrated by the area marked ‘test’ in the screen shot below. Nevertheless, e-learning has

brought a large number of other methods of electronic assessment.

Assignments which are useful on small screens are short questions with automatic feedback,

quizzes, multiple choice assignments and other assignments requiring little amounts of textual

input from the user, such as a vocabulary test. It is possible to design multimedia assignments,

for instance in Flash, such as drag and drop and other types of assignments if the device has

support for them. Multiple choice questions with 4 possible answers fit easily on the screens

of mobile devices.

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3. MOBILE LEARNING- MOBILE DEVICES AND

PLATFORMS

3.1. PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF MOBILE DEVICES

All mobile devices have a number of hardware features in common like the display, the

battery, an input mechanism to allow the user to interact with the device, an antenna etc. but

their characteristics can be distinctive of the different types of mobile devices (mobile phones,

smart-phones and tablets) and of particular importance when these devices are also though for

a m-learning use. In this light, it’s possible to distinguish the following features:

• Screen size

• Weight

• The interaction method

Range of screens

Mobile applications developers should provide support for multiple screen sizes and densities,

reflecting the many different screen configurations that a device may have.

To simplify and reduce the large number of combinations of screen size, it‘s possible to

divide the range of actual screen sizes and densities into:

• A set of four generalized sizes: small, normal, large, and xlarge

• A set of four generalized densities: ldpi (low), mdpi (medium), hdpi (high), and xhdpi

(extra high)

Some typical values you for common screen sizes are:

• phone screen: 240x320 ldpi, 320x480 mdpi, 480x800 hdpi, etc.

• tweener tablet like the Streak: 480x800 mdpi.

• 7” tablet: 600x1024 mdpi.

• 10” tablet: 720x1280 mdpi, 800x1280 mdpi, etc.

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The interaction method

Mobile devices come in two choices of interaction: standard and touch-screen. Standard

devices require you to use a physical keyboard to send and receive calls, navigate menus and

access additional features. This is the case of the classical mobile phones. Touch screens

allow to control the device by simply touching graphic buttons and images that appear on the

screen, which senses the pressure of the fingers. Touch screens have a huge cognitive

advantage over using an input device because they more closely resemble interactions with

the physical world.

Usually the tablets come with the touch screen without the physical keyboard. Lastly there are

many high-quality smart phones that have both standard and touch screen. Although you can

be innovative when designing contents for the mobile phone touch screen, remember that the

same content could be accessed by traditional mobile devices without touch screen, therefore

don’t limit the navigation or interaction to the touch commands or buttons.

Mobile sensors

Mobile sensors like the multi-touch display, accelerometer can be now exploited to create

interactive contents, including educational games and simulations.

Magnetometer, GPS and cameras present in the latest mobile devices fully support location-

based learning and augmented reality for educational purposes. Given a connection to the

Internet via Wi-Fi or 3G, social networking from the mobile device becomes a breeze. This is

all good for asynchronous m-Learning.

Listed below are some useful sensors in mobile phones used in m-learning:

• Proximity sensor

• Accelerometer sensor

• Magnetometer sensor

• Image sensor

• Tactile sensor

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Proximity sensor: A proximity sensor in a mobile phone detects the presence of users’ body

and deactivates the display and touch pad of phone when it is brought near the face during a

call. Proximity sensors are being incorporated in touch screen phones.

Accelerometer sensor: This sensor is incorporated to measure the acceleration of the device.

In a mobile phone, a 3-axis accelerometer senses the orientation of the mobile phone and

changes the screen orientation accordingly. It lets users switch between the portrait and

landscape mode smoothly and neatly. In some phones, this sensor also plays a life-saving role,

sensing the rate of change of acceleration resulted from a severe jerk from an accident. The

sensor helps users make an automatic call for assistance to pre-assigned number, when they

face severe and fatal jerk. It is also used for tap gesture recognition in the user interface for

controlling an application. The accelerometer input can be an alternative to direct

manipulation input to infer individual user styles within e-learning environments.

Magnetometer sensor: Magnetometer sensor measures strength, orientation, and direction of

magnetic field. This sensor orients maps automatically towards North, while navigating and

helps find direction in an easy way. This sensor is also known by names such as digital

compass or e-compass.

Image sensor: Image sensor converts an optical image into an electric signal. There are two

types of image sensors: charge-coupled device (CCD) & metal-oxide-semiconductor active

pixel sensor (CMOS APS). CMOS APS is mostly used in a mobile phone camera to sense

images. CCD is very good for digital imaging and is mainly used in professional, medical,

and scientific applications, where there is need of high quality image. Some of the mobile

phones also use CCD sensor for sensing images.

The simplest use of the mobile phone camera in m-learning foresees the creation of

Multimedia messaging (MMS) where the taken picture can be enriched with text or audio

material and sent immediately.

Tactile sensor: Tactile sensor is a device that is sensitive to touch, force, and pressure.

Capacitive touch screen phones use touch switch, one of the kinds of tactile sensors. Touch

switches detect the presence of finger or hand as well as stylus.

GPS sensor: it is basically a GPS receiver that uses the messages it receives from the GPS

satellites to determine the position of the user with a precision of about 20 meters. The GPS is

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largely used in for location-based learning which is rapidly becoming one of the most

pervasive uses of mobile devices. Location-based learning takes advantage of the ability of

mobile devices to know where they are located and deliver information that is time- and

place-relevant. The potential advantages are great: from basic uses such as guided historical

tours to more complex applications for mapping, fieldwork, and immersive activities,

location-based learning holds promise for just- in-time learning tied to a user’s physical

location.

Intelligent sensors have made smart phone a complete device. The business phone and high-

end multimedia phones segments are witnessing a trend of incorporation of more and more

smart sensors to make the phone more intelligent, increasing its use for m-learning

applications.

3.2. CHARACTERISTICSOF MOBILE PLATFORMS

The modern mobile operating systems combine the characteristics of computer operating

system with others that are typical for mobile devices such as touchscreen, GPS navigation,

camera or cellular communication.

The most common mobile operating systems are:

Android from Google

iOS from Apple

Blackberry OS from RIM

Windows Phone from Microsoft

Table 1 presents the advantages and disadvantages of the three most widely used OS:

Android, iOS и Windows Phone.

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Table 1. Android, iOS and Windows Phone- advantages and disadvantages

Android Apple iOS Windows Phone

AD

VA

NTA

GES

Easy management

Popular among the end

users.

Good documentation.

An open platform based in

Java.

unlike Apple, Google does

not put restrictions to

developers of Android and

all applications are

accepted in Google Play

(place for downloading

Android applications)

without prior approval.

Unlike the other OS you do

not have to have a program

like iTunes or Zune, to

connect it to your

computer.

Easy management

High functionality and

stable operating

system.

Better quality of the

software and technical

maintenance.

Greater control over

applications

developed

Windows

environment is

familiar to most

users

Uses standard

Windows programs

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DV

AN

TAG

ES the lack of approval on the

application carries a

certain risk

Sharing files with PC -

only through iTunes

Applications are

available only from

Apple Store

Problems with

displaying Flash pages

Sharing files with

PC - only through

Zune

Menus and

commands are not

optimized for touch

screen

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4. AUGMENTED REALITY TECHNOLOGY

4.1. AUGMENTED REALITY INEDUCATION

Augmented reality is an environment that includes real world and virtual world experiences.

The nature of technology Augmented reality (AR) has the potential power to build a proper

learning environment so as to satisfy the natural curiosity of students to explore the world

according to educational tasks.

Augmented reality may help usher in a new era for education, one that is more capable of

teaching students because it can engage them through a medium that is nearly universal with

all consumers: Mobile technology.

Mobile technology and technology Augmented reality provide an opportunity for freedom,

both teachers for integrated presentation and the students for advanced study of the problem,

which according to constructivist views is a prerequisite for the manifestation of

independence and selfinitiative.

Students do not require preliminary preparation to use these technologies. Technology

Augmented reality is based on their intuitive perceptions and their personal preferences, and

offers many opportunities to build sustainable long-term interest and motivation. The

advantage of using AR systems instead of other technologies, is that results highly intuitive

for people who have no experience with other computer systems. Thus, even the youngest

students can enjoy a fun interactive experience.

The application of these technologies overcomes the limitations in terms of time, place and

the size of educative materials. Students can use these technologies in the classroom and

beyond, at a convenient time and have access to a plenty of information for learning.

There are two main forms of Augmented reality technology, currently available to educators.

The first form is based on a visual metaphor, the second counts of spatial positioning. In the

first method, the so-called. "markers" (such as QR code) which are visual cues can be "seen"

by the camera of the mobile device. Markers are used to accurately determine the location and

nature of the object. When the marker is decoded by software, digital resources for the object

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are provided (text, images, audio, video, 3D models). Spatially positioned apps use GPS and

digital compass for determining the location and provision of digital resources for locating

objects in this place. Regardless of whether the marker is detected or using spatial positioning,

augmented reality is implemented in a specific context. A contextual information on what the

user wants to visualize on the right place is obtained.

QR codes is a matrix barcode that contains information which is displayed after scanning the

code.

Key benefits of the QR code, used as a marker in the AR applications, are:

Omnidirectional (at a different angle) and fast reading of coded information;

Ability to store different types of data: numbers, text information, binary data,

Chinese, Japanese or Korean characters;

Ability to correct errors - allowing the reader to regenerate the missing content at a

violation of the integrity of the barcode (spotting or detachment);

Large volume of the stored information;

The playback code occupies a small part of the surface for printing;

Compensation of deformation - the possibility of decoding even if the surface on

which the QR code is printed is bent or distorted.

4.2. TECHNOLOGY "AUGMENTED REALITY" BY MOBILE DEVICES

WITHIN THE ACTIVE LEARNING CONTEXT

Definition of Active Learning

There is still no generally accepted definition of the term "active learning." The following

definitions present a different view of the contents of this concept:

"Active learning" in short, includes all activities of students in the classroom other

than passive listening to the instructions of the teacher. It involves listening, short

written exercises, by which students show understanding of the material, complex

group activities that enable students to apply the knowledge in real life situations and /

or in the process of solving problems that are new for them (Paulson & Faust, 1998).

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In active learning students are active during the lesson, they discover, process and

apply information received. Active learning is derived from two basic assumptions:

(1) learning is by nature an active effort, and (2) different people learn differently.

Research shows that learning is successful when students are engaged in it.

In active learning students use their minds, study ideas, solve problems and apply the

learned material. It is fun, rewarding and personally engaging. To learn something

well, it must be heard, seen, to raise questions about it and discuss it with others.

Above all, students need to operate - to judge things on their own, to give examples to

test their skills, to make judgments based on knowledge that have or should acquire

(Green, L, &Giannola, DC 2011).

Finding a learning strategy where students are more involved in the learning process -

that underlies the "active learning." The idea of active learning is being developed

over the past few years when cognitive psychologists have noticed that learning takes

place better in terms of social interaction and less competition. Various methods in

which students work together inside and outside the class, as well as during the lesson

help for the realization of active learning. (Dolan, 1996).

Advantages of active learning:

Without denying the benefits of traditional pedagogical approach where teachers fully

take responsibility for the learning process, active learning allows freedom of students

to seek and offer solutions. This will create habits and skills of young people for

lifelong learning, which is considered a critical factor for a successful career.

Research show that the effectiveness of the learning process increases greatly if it

incorporates active learning - students are able to learn more and more carefully, to

express themselves better, to make judgments, and durability of their knowledge is

greater.

Active learning allows students to be engaged in the learning process. They are

included in more and more varied activities than just to listen, and to a lesser extent

are related to the place of receipt of the information (school, for example). They

develop their learning skills for reading, writing and discussion as the greatest

emphasis is on the fact that they themselves develop their own capacities and

capabilities.

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Techniques and strategies of active learning can be applied in class and outside of

class.

Use of "augmented reality" technology by mobile devices for the purpose of active learning

The technologies used for the purpose of active learning, should provide the following

four key characteristics of active learning:

1. Engaging different senses of students (hearing, seeing, feeling).

2. Using the hands.

3. Interaction and collaboration.

4. Construction of new knowledge based on what they have learned.

Engaging different senses of students

Research shows that students learn faster and durability of their knowledge is longer when the

learning process involves not only their hearing, but their other senses. With regard to

memory there are three types of students: "visual", "hearing" and "kinaesthetic".

"Visual" students. Most effectively learn and remember written information,

diagrams, pictures and symbols. They are about 65% of all students.

"Listening" students. They are most effective in speech communication, in lectures

and discussions. The written texts are not so important. Especially importance has the

quality of speech - timbre, tone, strength. They are about 30% of all students.

"Kinaesthetic" students. They learn effectively through contacts and movements,

imitation and practice. They are about 5% of the total.

Using the "augmented reality" technology by mobile devices allows presentation and /

or complement of the educational content with a variety of multimedia resources - text, still

images, audio, video, 3D / 2D animation. The added advantage here is that this information is

provided depending on the context or location of the student. Thus AR creates additional

experiences for students, contributes to a better perception of curricula, stimulate the

imagination and creativity of the students.

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Using of hands

The "augmented reality" technology with success can be used for the study of complex

spatial concepts. Most often this is done by modelling of 3D objects. The students can with

their hands to manipulate the model – to move it, to rotated it, to increase or decrease it (by

zooming in or out the camera of the mobile device from the marker), thus objects can be

viewed from different angles. This maximum closes interaction with virtual objects to the

interaction with the physical ones and thus helps build visual images and spatial relationships

among students.

Collaborative learning and learning through interaction

Collaborative learning (in some ref. sources it is translated as "learning through cooperation")

and learning through interaction (collaborative and cooperative learning) are one of the most common

training models used in active learning. It has been shown that they improve the skills for learning,

thinking and communication skills. The main features of this study are defined as: presence of common

purpose accepted by all, around the group to unite their efforts and be rewarded for the achieved result;

the sense of individual responsibility, which means that all members of the group consciously

contribute to the realization of the target; the teacher structures and guides the activities in groups.

Regardless of the educational scenario, mobile devices can support interaction and

collaboration of students. Students can interact with teachers and peers as synchronous or

asynchronous communication can exchange resources through the camera of the mobile

device. Moreover, camera, GPS, accelerometer, gyroscope of the mobile device are the main

hardware components of applications (games) for augmented reality. The collaboration

between students in this case is achieved by sharing common markers.

Construction of new knowledge

One of the principles of active learning is that knowledge is not translated, but it must

be constructed. To achieve this the learning environment must offer rich opportunities for

learning through real life situations that require students to work together, follow their pace of

work and cooperate with each other. All these conditions can be successfully achieved

through a combination of:

Appropriate methods and techniques;

Appropriately selected digital resources;

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The opportunities offered by augmented reality by mobile devices for joint learning;

The opportunities offered by augmented reality by mobile devices and for the use of

hands during learning.

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5. THE SPECIFICS OF PRESENTING DIGITAL RESOURCES

AND THE ACCESS TO THEM FROM MOBILE DEVICES

5.1. DIGITAL LEARNING RESOURCES

The term digital learning resource is used here to refer to materials included in the context of

a course that support the learner's achievement of the described learning goals. These

materials consist of a wide variety of digitally formatted resources including:

• graphics images or photos

• audio and video

• simulations

• animations

• prepared or programmed learning modules.

Digital learning resources are different from traditional physical textbook in many ways. One

obvious difference is that digital learning resources can be multi-modal, which means that the

communication can be made both visually and auditory. Furthermore, visual presentations in

digital format can be made not only as still pictures but also as short video sequences or

animations. Another difference is that digital learning resources can be constructed as

simulations, where the simulator represents a physical environment in which it is safe and

inexpensive to make dynamic experiments.

One further dissimilarity is that most textbooks have been developed within the framework of

the public school system with its specific traditions and rules regarding what kind of goals

students should reach. Many digital learning resources have a different story – not necessarily

emanating from the needs of the school system but a broader commercial market or social

context.

A learning resource can refer either to any resource used by teachers and students for the

purpose of learning, or to only resources particularly designed to be used in learning settings.

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To conclude, this means that by digital learning resources we understand any digital resource

that is actually used for the purpose of learning.

Main characteristics of digital learning resources:

• They are independent - each digital learning resource can be used independently

from the other;

• They are reusable - separate digital learning resource can be used in different

situations for different purposes. This requires structuring and maintaining in a

certain way.

• May be merged - digital learning resources can be grouped into larger educational

content.

• Have a meta description through metadata - with the help of metadata describing

contents of the digital learning resource and allows its indexing, search and reuse.

5.2. PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS IN DEVELOPING DIGITAL

RESOURCES FOR MOBILE DEVICES

When we talk about learning systems, the educational content and how it is presented to the

user is of great importance. Learners receive all their educational materials in traditional

learning and e-learning in the form of text documents – books, leaflets, presentations, pdf

documents. Coming to a new platform – the mobile, they have to change the way they accept

and interpret data. The information conveyed on one screen for an e-Learning may need the

equivalent of three or four screens on the mobile device.

The screen size is critical to presenting data to the user. Bigger images will force the user to

do a lot of scrolling. Reading longer texts on a smaller screen makes the user uncomfortable

and can cause serious eye problems.

Another way of showing the same content to the user must be found.

A solution to these problems are sound and video files. Long texts can be narrated. This way

the learner doesn’t have to watch the screen and could sit relaxed and concetrate on the

materials. Video files are an even better approach. Through such rich media the system gets

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more interactive: interesting animations like, for example, physical laws can be animated and

therefore interactively explained.

TEXT

Usually all instructional designers and content developers have enough experience about

building up text based content. Nevertheless, practitioners have already identified some text

development specifics for mobile devices. These issues are mostly connected to the small

screen size and the interoperability of the tools.

Textual content should be used for:

• short pieces of information;

• tips;

• pathways through the system.

The following type font suite is the best for most of the available mobile equipment:

• Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;

• Times New Roman, Times, serif;

• Courier New, Courier, mono;

• Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;

• Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;

• Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif.

Keep in mind that due to the small screen size using too many colours might be disturbing. It

is more advisable to use less, but distinctive colours.

As was mentioned before readability is a key issue. Here we also have to think about the time

learners have to spend with reading the text on their devices! Previous research showed that

text based mobile learning is actually very exhausting! Reading long minutes on a mobile

phone may make eyes tired quite easily. Therefore, we advise operating with as little text as

possible.

IMAGES

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A picture can tell a thousand words, therefore using images in learning content is highly

recommended. Incorporating pictures in your content is not difficult but there are also some

small, but important, details you may have to consider.

Nowadays most of the mobile devices have a 3.5'' screen, displaying 240x320 pixels, but the

majority still prefer smaller displays due to the smaller price. When an image is uploaded to a

mobile learning system it needs to be viewable and understandable by the student.

Recommended image size is: 240 pixel maximum width and 320 pixels maximum height. The

educational content creator should use larger images only if he is sure about the devices of the

target group.

Nowadays every mobile device manufacturer supports its own standards and although there

are attempts to settle on some international ones, we still face the problem with the image file

format. As we know our computers support a vast number of image formats – JPEG, GIF,

BMP, TIFF, PNG, etc.

The mobile devices, due to their smaller operational memory and slower transfer rates, must

use a very good compressed, almost noiseless format. This format should also be supported

by most mobile device manufacturers. It might also be a good idea to use PNG format for all

images. The PNG format is accepted in almost all currently available devices.

AUDIO

Again, if an audio format is supported or not, depends on the manufacturer, but still all

devices nowadays use the standard format WAV.

There comes another big problem – a minute of WAV sound with acceptable good quality is

about 10MB, which will take a lot of time to download and process and also lot of money.

Course material as sound could also be a lot longer – 5 to 10 minutes or even more.

Some tips to minimize file size:

• Students don’t need perfect quality, unless the course is about music. Normally the

human voice uses a frequency from 8000Hz to 16000Hz. So there won’t be

considerable change of quality if a WAV file is converted from a 44kHz sample to

around 8kHz bandwidth.

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• Record the audio in mono format. Very few devices nowadays offer true stereo sound

from their loudspeakers and stereo sound is almost not needed for speech.

• The last characteristic of a sound file is its bit rate. For high-quality sounds this is

higher than 20kb/sec. For speech 7kb/sec would do perfectly well without loss of

quality.

The tests show, that a high-quality wav file of 1 minute is about 10MB in size, and after using

the above three tips for converting the file it was compressed to about 500kb.

VIDEO

The 3rd Generation Project has developed a standard for video files on mobile devices – 3GP

(file format is *.3gp). 3gp is a container for video information. Every modern device should

and must support this format. Resolution of a video (recommended 240x320 pixels) should

again not be bigger than the user’s screen.

The video format underneath can follow two standards.

The first one is the so called H.263, which is the default 3gp standard. It is characterized by:

• less compression;

• poor quality;

• easier to implement.

Therefore, it is supported even by older mobile devices. Sound contained in the file should be

the standard AMR or AAC.

The second format is the H.264. It allows better compression without losing much of the

quality. The drawback of this method is that the implementation of the parsing algorithm is

heavy and cannot be implemented on every device.

The H.264 format is also an extension to the MPEG-4 called ‘Part 10’ by the standardization

authorities. It is interesting to note, that this format is used also on other platforms like

YouTube, Blu-Ray discs, Adobe Flash Video, etc.

Table 2.Comparison

H.263 H.264

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Older mobile devices used the, easier to

implement on weak devices, format H.263.

This format has a limitation in the size of the

video, where the maximum is set at 176x144

pixels. Displaying textual information on such

a small space is pointless, because of the small

amount of information, that it can contain.

If the user has a more modern device –

with a

bigger screen and better calculation power,

then it is probable that it supports the

better

format H.264. This format allows larger

video sizes and in video files encoded with

it is also possible to place text.

There are a couple of simple ways to create video from learning content:

• using a Web screen-recording tool (for example Camtasia);

• converting a PowerPoint content directly to video format. You create your content in

Power Point, add animations, synch narration and convert directly to video format.

The following conclusions can be made:

1. One of the advantages of designing mLearning is that it forces us to express the most with

the least; it compels us to design concise, elegant content and remove the superfluous.

2. If the information can be shown interactively – in the form of animation or video, then

results could be better than expected.

3. Downloading larger files could cost more at some places, according to the data plan of the

user. Therefore it is best to use lower bit rates for audio and video, and make the video screen

smaller.

4. Textual content should be used for short pieces of information and tips.

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6. THE SPECIFICS OF THE TRAINING OF THE TARGET

GROUPS

Many Jordan universities and institutions of higher education have recognized the value of the

Internet in changing the way people learn. Traditional classroom courses can be augmented

with interactive materials on the Web and old fashioned distance learning courses can be

transformed from correspondence courses or television lectures into e-learning environments.

However, few Jordan institutions have been able to embrace e-learning in a way that enables

widespread innovative uses of learning technology throughout the institution. Instead, many

rely on individual faculty or departments to make their own decisions about how to

implement an e-learning environment that best suits their needs. The result is a hybrid of

incompatible solutions that make it difficult for faculty to share their work.

The lack of a centralized technical support organization can also limit the use of e-learning

tools to departments that have technical expertise. E-learning can be defined as the use of

information and communication technology to acquire knowledge and improve skills at times

and on terms defined by each learner in an interactive and engaging environment. It can cover

a spectrum of activities from supported learning, to blended learning (the combination of

traditional and e-learning practices), to learning that is entirely online.

The higher education in Jordan has been traditionally recognized as the base for learning,

technological innovation, and knowledge creation. Empowering this base with widened and

lifelong learning capabilities better promotes innovation, intellectual capital investment, social

and economic development, and education empowerment. Recent advances in ICT have

spurred an increasing interest in e-learning pedagogy to widen access to learning and cultivate

lifelong learning among citizens through the use of ICT.

Some characteristic features of using Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) in

Jordan are:

• Jordanian Universities have robust, standards-based information technology network

infrastructure, including hardware, software, and applications for intra-university

connectivity; and global connectivity through the Internet.

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• Jordanian Universities are connected to centralized integrated e-library system.

• Some Universities have invested in e-learning tools (VLE and Content Development

tools).

• Mobile penetration is growing rapidly and reached 64%, mainly due to significant

drops in mobile charges.

• The quality and reliability of the telecommunications infrastructure is above global

standards.

• E-learning experience is immature in all Jordanian Universities and it is scattered

among some departments/faculties without consistency.

• There is no common understanding of the benefits of e-learning. Some see it as a

lesser form of education (when compared with traditional classroom based, teacher or

professor-led instruction). Very few people see the potential it can bring to improving

the quality of education, and increasing the reach and breadth of educational

opportunities.

• Most of the content being developed does not leverage e-learning instructional design

The target groups as well as the responsible Jordan universities, schools and training

institutions have conducted the interviews and collected the surveys. A group of participants,

including instructors, teachers and students, were contacted and interviewed.

The following conclusions from the needs analysis are made:

• The study stressed the need for effective and continuous integration of the mobile

technologies in the educational process.

• The most suitable devices to be used are tablets or laptops while using mobile device

inside class rooms might be difficult.

• Tablets or laptops should be redistributed in a way that is compatible with students’

numbers and educational needs.

• Activating and promoting the mobile devices in the educational process should be

sustainably serviced to avoid technical problems that students might face. Furthermore,

the lectures content must be updated to meet the students’ needs.

• Finding radical solutions for slow Internet connection and other disconnection

inconveniences before Appling the program.

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• Change the type of lecture’s content most frequently used from hard copies (text) to

digital resources audio, video, images.

• Most teachers (about 80%) agree that mobile learning will bring new opportunities of

learning.

• Around 78% of the students used their mobiles in education. Students with special

needs (deaf) are the most.

6.1 mEQUITY Case Target Groups

Based on the needs analysis survey's results that aimed to examine the readiness and use of

mobile technologies in the higher educational institutions in Jordan (HEI), and seeks to assist

in developing plans, strategies and programs that support education reform for the people with

special needs, and depending on the information gathered by means of questionnaires and

interviews; the target groups and their profiles, level of social adaptation, learning

environment, abilities and specific needs were consequently defined.

The target groups of the project are shown in the table below, as well as the responsible

university who had conducted the interviews and the collected the surveys.

Target Groups:Responsible

UniversityStatus

1. General Secondary Schools for Children with Special

Needs. (QRC)

2. Students at the School of Engineering-UJ (Dipseil)

UJ

Higher Council for Affairs of persons with Disabilities UJ

Deanship of Students Affairs at each partner University UJ, PSUT,JUST

Gazza refugees camp JUST

Nazik Al Hariri welfare center for special education PUST

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Table (1): shows the distribution of the targeted groups that participated in the study among

the Jordanian Universities.

6.1.1 University of Jordan Case

Students with special needs started to receive educational services in Jordan in the late 1960s.

It was clear that these services were mainly focused on people who were visually impaired

and deaf - those who had disabilities which were obviously physical instead of related to

learning.

In 2010 the MoE established two specialist departments in order to provide assistance. In July

2010 the MoE also established a department of special education impairments combined with

a department of talent in Jordan.

Al-Amal Secondary School for Deaf Students.

A public institution- No fees are applied- located in Jabal Allweibdeh in the middle of

Amman, the capital, 8.5 km away from the University of Jordan.

The system of education in Al-Amal school is "Coeducational" Where girls and boys are

jointly educated at the same classes. The approximate number of registered students is 109,

while the number of staff is 32.

Students at Al-Amal School are divided into two categories:

Deaf Students (Majority)

Students who are found to be educationally deaf are being taught in classes where Sign

Language is the primary language for communication and for teaching/learning and where the

written Arabic language is taught/learned by way of translation = bilingual education.

Students with Hard of Hearing (HH)

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Students with this possibility are being taught in classes where the Arabic (spoken) language

is the main language and where some signs and total communication are used to clarify and

ease the communication.

First one must make a thorough assessment of the hearing-loss, the student's capability to

utilize his residual hearing, the language-level - in short: the student's possibilities of

acquiring the spoken language through hearing.

Teaching/learning methods at Al-Amal School:

Since the education of the deaf needs so much extra teaching/learning material beyond

textbooks and exercise books, they also use ample facilities for material production.

Primarily, a good photocopying machine and also ample supplies of paper, cardboard, crayons

etc.

They depend on Visual –Based learning as methods of teaching. The languages used in the

classroom by teachers are: Sign Language and written English and Arabic Language.

It's worth mentioning that courses in sign language for families and for beginner teachers,

interpreters and other professionals working with the deaf are being offered by the expert

teachers.

Teacher training, ToT

The teachers in general seem devoted and skillful.

Qualified and motivated teachers are appointed in the school.

Training workshops for the teachers are being organized regularly, but they still need

to receive training on new techniques and tools to implement newly acquired teaching

approaches in the classrooms.

Vocational Training Program.

At the School they have pre-vocational programs. Since they believe that Not many of the

deaf students will be capable of receiving their higher education. Furthermore, if they have

36


finished their education, they will have to compete on unequal terms with their hearing peers

in a field where unemployment is growing in Jordan.

Target Group II: Students at the School of Engineering-UJ (Dipseil)

The Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Jordan approve to

include the following developed courses that use DIPSEIL system as e-learning platform in

the context of mEQUITY project within the curriculum of the departments, which have been

offered at the:

1. 1st Semester of the academic year 2017/2018.

2. 2nd Semester of the academic year 2017/2018.

3. Summer semester of the academic year 2017/2018.

Lectures were prepared and taught by mEQUITY team at the University of Jordan;

Prof. Ahmed Al-Salaymeh (Project Coordinator at UJ).

Prof. Dia Abu Al-Nadi (Electrical Engineering Department).

Prof. Mohammad Hawwa (Electrical Engineering Department).

Dr. Ghazi Al-Sukkar (Electrical Engineering Department).

6.1.2 Princess Sumaya University for Technology Case

As a summary of our work with Nazik al Hariri Welfare Center for special Education, and the

survey forms distributed among PSUT educators and learners, we have now located our target

groups which we intended to propose during the second management meeting being:

I. Target group one: All PSUT students

II. Target group two: Students from Nazik al Hariri Welfare Center for special

Education between the ages of 8-18 years old.

Target Groups

Our Lady of Peace Center (Special Education)

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Current training / classes / services

Typing

Basic IT skills

Drawing

Play ground

Health care activities

Counting Lessons

Identifying Letters

Identifying Animals

38


Partners Institution Technology Students

Current training / classes / services:

Remote Communication Experiments

6.1.3 Jordan University of Science and Technology Case

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The Target groups of mEQUITY project at JUST were students with problems in access to

education including:

1. Gaza camp students who suffers from socioeconomic isolation (please refer to the

Pilot Experiment Organization report for more details about this group [1])

2. Unemployed young professional who recently graduated from JUST

3. Senior students with special needs.

4. Students from the host communities (here they will be JUST students who live in the

host communities as encouraged by local officials to comply with the national

response plan to support refugees and their host communities adapted by the EU and

other international donors [2-4])

In the first phase of the project a Need analysis study was conducted to identify the

characteristics of the target group and the attitudes of both educators and students to the

use of mobile technologies and their application in the processes of teaching and

learning in JUST which showed a great acceptance of using such technology in education

despite the fact that only minority of students and teachers have ever used mobile for learning.

The Need analysis study emphasized the importance of developing vocational training

courses in renewable energy which can improve the life quality of this low-income

community, create new jobs, and protect the surrounding environment.

The study also showed that using mobile application technology is an essential tool to reach

these targeted low-income groups in and deliver useful and successful training materials.

Using this technology in teaching and training can have a great impact on other low-income

communities such as village and isolated regions in Jordan to deliver different type of training

for them to improve their income and enhance their life quality and health.

Within the mEQUTIY project the following SWOT matrix has been identified for the target groups:

40


Strengths

Positive attitude toward the use of distance learning programs, and mobile digital resources

New funding program to support the installation of PV and solar water heaters Jordan

Weaknesses

have limited access to services including; state universities

high unemployment ratio

Geographic location – limited access to education

Opportunities

about 4000 to 6000 job opportunities by PV projects alone until 2020 in Jordan

positive association of higher education with income, self-perceived good health and male employment

Strong and experience consortium with experience in developing RE education

Adaptation of educational system to the needs of business

Interest in broad and multi-disciplinary skills combining technical background with economics, and management competencies

Threats

Large number of young populations

Lack of adequate funding to have the desired impact

Lack of awareness and practical skills about RE technologies

Work ban of positions in the public sector for Gaza camp students

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7. IMPLEMENTATION OF TWO EDUCATIONAL

SCENARIOS – MDR Model mEQUITY Case

7.1. EDUCATIONAL SCENARIOS

1. Encouraging interactivity and expand training opportunities for students with

special needs;

2. Use of mobile devices for distant training of socio-economic disadvantaged

people.

The design of educational scenarios is based on the following prerequisites:

• The implementation of the “augmented reality” technology by using mobile devices in

the educational process allows for applying specific approaches, based on the modern

pedagogical theories and their realization in practice, what is due to the fact that it can be

implemented successfully in training. Thus the interest toward attending study will be

increased, as the students will look at their classes as a place for interesting and creative

activities.

• The use of mobile digital resources during the lessons will practically contribute to

students knowledge and skills integration and forming competences in various fields of

knowledge. The students with special needs will be encouraged, by means of increasing their

motivation and self-assessment for obtaining better education with a view to a better

perspective for their socialization and fulfilment in life.

• Appropriate use of “augmented reality” technology on mobile devices in training

creates prerequisites for full control over the basic components of the material.

• Training with the help of mobile devices has the potential to enhance the access to

education for students, to create supportive learning environment, adaptive to their individual

needs. Advancement in development of mobile technologies creates prerequisites for

facilitating the online students in three main areas: Information resources delivery; Access to

training resources; Interactive communication between educators and students. The main

advantage, offered by training with mobile devices to students with special needs is that it

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removes the spatial barriers in front of them – the physical classrooms become unnecessary in

the traditional sense of this word and the students can join a course from a place and at time,

chosen by them.

• The second scenario addresses people who do not have access to education as it is far

away from their place, because of lack of finances, or because of socio-economic isolation. In

times when big groups of people permanently remain outside the labour market, taking

measures to increase employment and organizing retraining and motivation of the

unemployed people are of primary importance. Obtaining additional training and

qualifications is a prerequisite for start a job. For this scenario a package of courses for initial

vocational training will be developed based on the platform for electronic training DIPSEIL.

The previous experience of the team members and the results, obtained during the study of the

“augmented reality” technology and its application in education gives us reasons to expand

the study to different groups of users in various educational and training contexts. The

character of the “augmented reality” technology has the potential to build an appropriate

learning environment to satisfy the natural curiosity of the students and give them the chance

to get to know the world in accordance with their educational objectives. The use of these

technologies does not require from the students any preparation in advance. The “augmented

reality” technology is based on their intuitive preconceptions and personal preferences and

offers very good possibilities for building steady interest and lasting motivation.

Scenario 1. Encouraging interactivity and expand training opportunities for

students with special needs;

The focus of the scenario is placed on the students with special needs: people with disabilities,

ethnic minorities students, students dropping out from the educational system for various

reason. The integration of these groups depends mainly on their training and the knowledge

they acquire. All the means, listed above, facilitate memorizing and learning by offering

visual and audio stimuli and therefore they are appropriate for people with deficits.

The use of an innovative method of training for improving the conditions for access to

education aims at making the schools more attractive by building up a supportive educational

environment, by enriching with appropriate for the particular age school materials and school-

aids.

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The formulation of the objective is based on the prerequisite that the implementation of the

augmented reality technology by using mobile devices in the educational process allows for

applying specific approaches, based on the modern pedagogical theories and their realization

in practice, what is due to the fact that it can be implemented successfully in training. Thus

the interest toward attending school by the students from minority groups will be increased, as

they will look at their school as a place for interesting and creative activities.

Training with the help of mobile devices has the potential to enhance the access to education

for students with special needs, to create supportive learning environment, adaptive to their

individual needs. Advancement in development of mobile technologies creates prerequisites

for facilitating the online students in three main areas:

Information resources delivery;

Access to training resources;

Interactive communication between educators and students.

Scenario 2.Use of mobile devices for distant training of socio-economic

disadvantaged people.

This scenario is addressed to people who do not have access to education as it is far away

from their place, because of lack of finances, or because of socio-economic isolation. In times

when big groups of people permanently remain outside the labour market, taking measures to

increase employment and organizing retraining and motivation of the unemployed people are

of primary importance. Obtaining additional training andqualificationsis a prerequisite

forbetter employment.

Advantages, offered by distant learning to unemployed people from remote areas are:

• It removes the spatial barriers – the physical classroom now becomes unnecessary and

the students can join the courses in the virtual learning environment from a place on

their choice;

• Removes the time barriers – thus the various styles of learning are satisfied and the

students follow a flexible schedule of learning in convenient for them time;

• Removes the dependence on the basic paper source of information (mostly a

textbook), wherein a possible potential advantage is the access to more up-to-date and

relevant information;

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• Increasesthe commitment ofthe studentstothe learning process. This can happen in

practice by facilitating the access to information and by wider choice of available

materials.

7.2 MODEL OF THE USE OF "AUGMENTED REALITY" TECHNOLOGY

BY MOBILE DEVICES IN LEARNING

The construction of educational technology of teaching of the educational content

using augmented realitycomplies the following factors:

Psycho-physiological characteristics students with special needs;

The principles of active learning.

Educational technology includes the following set of activities such as:

Preparation of plan-scenarios of individual lessons from selected subjects. They reflect

the place and manner of incorporating "augmented reality" technology;

Selection of the appropriate system of methods and techniques of teaching and

organization of educational process on selected topics using "augmented reality"

technology by mobile devices.

The preparation of appropriate tools for diagnostic of students’ knowledge.

In preparing this structural element the experience and views of the teacher who set his

teaching style and personal preferences is dominant. The teacher is the one who adapts

prepared educational multimedia products for augmented reality to the characteristics of the

students.

Educational technology includes three methodological options to carry out the learning

process.

In methodological option 1 QR Codes are printed on transparent film, which is placed

on the relevant page of the textbook. For each page of the book, for which there is multimedia

content created, there are transparencies with a corresponding QR code.

Under this option, the teacher plays a leading role in organizing the learning process.

He:

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Sets the pace of work so that all students can work simultaneously;

In the course of the lesson he organizes a targeted surveillance of multimedia

resources related to the QR code.

In methodological option 2 the QR Codes are printed on separate worksheets made

according to the theme of the lesson. Students work in pairs, but alone, without the

intervention of the teacher. For the monitoring of each individual resource, completing the

questions and tasks of the worksheet to it a fixed time is allocated. After the expiry of this

time the answers are checked collectively and if necessary the teacher gives further

clarification. In this methodological option the teacher has again a leading role in organizing

the learning process, as the pace of the work is set by him again. Here, in contrast to the

methodical Option 1, independent work of students has a greater share. Students read tasks,

prepare joint responses and only then participate in the lecture organized by the teacher.

In methodological option 3 worksheets with printed QR Codes are used again, but the

organization of learning is different. Students observe all the multimedia resources in pairs

and alone (without the intervention of the teacher), answer all questions and problems from

worksheets. Shortly before the end of the lesson collectively check the answers again. The

main differences between this version and version 2 are as follows:

There is increased the individual work of students - the intervention of the teacher is

only at the end of the lesson to examine and summarize the results;

This option provides relatively good job opportunity students to follow their own pace

of learning (as far as it is possible in the class-classroom system of education).

Choosing this option is linked to the idea to increase autonomy in the study of topics

and to provide conditions for shared learning.

7.3 MODEL FOR THE USE OF DIPSEIL DIPSEIL (http://env.dipseil.net/v3) is a platform for electronic learning, giving possibilities

for designing, development and offering resources for the educational process, characterized

by ensuring help for the students when necessary and as much as required, so that they can

deal with real assignments in the context of a problem-based type of education. DIPSEIL has

two specific characteristics:

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The learning content is based on learning tasks. Performance tasks aim preliminary at

specified learning outcomes.

There will be no lectures, practicals or final examination. Students only perform the

learning tasks throughout the semester and collect credits for each learning tasks they

perform adequately. They receive a final mark at the end of the semester based on the

collected credits.

DIPSEIL task for performance provides a combination of the following elements:

Task description - the learning tasks is described, explaining the students what is

expected of them.

Reference information - task relevant resources support students by making

immediately available information, which they either have to study or use just in time

to perform the task.

Task-specific training - training materials which help the user to learn while

performing the task.

Instructions how to perform the task.

Expert advice about a task - expert advices part contains specific advice on performing

tasks.

According to the needs and capabilities of the students, educational modules/courses will be

developed and adapted on the platform for electronic learning DIPSEIL.

Some principal changes in the instructional design of course materials:

Instructional designers have to think in terms of training solutions to performance

tasks. The task analysis defines the underlying skills and knowledge that lead to expert

task performance.

The students’ assessment is changed in term of well-performed task. Goals and

objectives transform the measurement of achieved knowledge and skills to the

measurement impact on performance. And the evaluation of this impact will be the

required level of performance.

By means of DIPSEIL platform individual support will be provided and individual approach

will be applied. To enable students to participate fully in the learning process, when

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developing the educational courses, both the capabilities and requirements of the particular

group of students should be precisely analysed and well-grounded choice of the most

appropriate mobile technology should be made for development of digital resources, adequate

to their needs.

1. For the students with musculoskeletal disorders educational modules from a Master’s

degree course will be adapted. The use of the mobile technologies has a key and facilitating

role in offering educational resources to students with musculoskeletal disorders because of

the fact that mobile technologies give a flexible access to a wide spectrum of information and

educational digital resources, tailored to their needs. They allow online courses to be accessed

from mobile devices at any time and from any place.

2. For unemployed people a set of courses for professional qualification will be developed,

based on the platform for electronic learning DIPSEIL. It will give a possibility to include in

the educational system people, isolated for social-economic reasons.

The Design Model presents main steps and activities that the course designer has to undertake

preparing the course, presented and structured as DIPSEIL, and obtained results from these

activities. The results are input data for the DIPSEIL Editor, which aimed to fill the DIPSEIL

data-base, giving up the course designer a friendly and useful environment to do this.

The first step in the Design Model is to define the subject matter domain in a form of

knowledge model. In educational contexts, the domain is a subject area and for the domain

analysis we have to define the domain and identify and list all tasks that comprise the domain.

For defining the domain the designer has to identify main concepts in the domain and their

relations; materials that allow the user to learn more deeply about a given concept and provide

the theory defining the concept; additional information, software, good examples and

instructions.

The next step in the Model is to state the objectives to define the desired learning outcomes in

terms of a measurable learner performance. In this step objectives are stated on the level

domain objectives.

The next two steps continue the process of defining the domain of learning and lead to the

well defined tasks for performance – list with tasks for performance, activities to be operated

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upon in each task and tools to be used. The transactions define the tasks that gain each of the

objectives. The following information will be required: major ways that the concepts are

likely to be used by or useful to the learner; major competencies that are part of the concepts;

any tools that are used in the performance of each task; any objects that gained during

performance of each task.

The result from the transactions is a list with all tasks for performance, mastering the domain.

The designer has to think of, list and arrange all tasks in the optimal procedural order,

avoiding duplication of tasks. Then he has to determine any paths trough tasks in order to gain

each objective, sequence the paths and organize them into modules.

For each task for performance the designer has to identify instructions for task performance,

software for task performance and direction for using software for task performance purpose.

One of the most important parts of DIPSEIL is the Expert advice. Expert systems allow

expertise of the few to be disseminated to the many. They do this by encoding an expert's

knowledge in discrete, declarative 'chunks' of knowledge, without the need for conventional

programming. A reasoning engine applies that knowledge to specific cases by having

information from the course designer. The reasoning engine, using the knowledgebase, probes

the user for information about a particular situation as needed, and finds the appropriate

recommendations for that user, based on their situation.

7.4 REALIZATION OF MDR MODEL mEQUITY CASE at the three

Jordanian Universities

The term 'model' consists main elements and their identification during the implementation

phase. In mEQUITY case these elements are:

1) courseware and content;

2) software tools (e.g. learning management systems);

3) material for e-learning capacity building;

4) repositories of learning objects; and

5) free educational courses.

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According to their function in learning, mobile digital resources include:

• Learning resources - courseware, content modules, learning objects, learner support

and assessment tools;

• Resources to support teachers - tools for teachers and support materials to enable

them to create, adapt, and use MDR, as well as training materials for teachers and

other teaching tools.

7.4.1 mEQUITY MDR Model at JUST

Based on the Need analyses study, JUST developed University level courses (vocational and

academic courses) about renewable energy, agriculture engineering, and IoT fields that

correspond to the skills, knowledge and competence, abilities and specific needs of the target

group, for which the digital resources for learning by means of mobile devices was developed.

Performance Centered Learning methodology was adapted during the development of the

courses. The performance in education related to performance of students’ future working

environments. During the course students should be confronted with and trained for situations

they will also encounter in their future profession. The scope of courses should not be limited

to support the curriculum educational objectives but also support the performance of the

students in the everyday working environment.

The open educational resources were available to the students within the DIPSEIL

framework (Distributed Internet Based Performance Support Environment for Individualized

Learning).

Renewable energy courses

mEQUITY team aims to develop a modern education strategy to introduce the Renewable

Energy (RE) concepts and benefits through Vocational Training (VT) to disadvantage people.

The courses concentrate on Photovoltaics PV since it is the most Job generating RE

technology in Jordan.

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The objective of VT in RE should cover the need of business activities of companies working

in RE in Jordan which basically lay within sales/installations of PV, and although there is a

clear need for qualified engineers and technician, engineers with multidisciplinary skills

(knowledge of finance, marketing, or economics) are also needed.

Main results obtained from field surveys on the RE education in Jordan, suggest that that

renewable energy markets will suffer from ill-educated and trained engineers and technicians

in this field.

The following table shows a group of educational objectives that was identified for the

renewable energy courses, the Educational objectives are also divided into 3 groups as follow:

Basic knowledge related to

PV and solar water heaters

Introduction to solar energy

and other RE technologies

Introduction of the energy

status in Jordan

Physics of solar radiations

(quantity, quality, spectrum)

Solar radiation

measurements (DNI, GHI,

DR, GNI, etc...)

Solar radiation and PV

energy Balance

PV system component

PV system design and

performance indicators

Tilt angle, Air mass, Sizing

Practical skills of Designer

and installer

Occupational safety and

health

Personal protective

equipment

Site survey and

identification of customer

requirements

Design and sizing of an on-

grid PV system

Design and sizing of an off-

grid PV system

Design sizing, selection and

installation of a solar water

heater

Structural systems

Business skills of Designer

and installer

Soft business skills

including:

Communication skills.

Self-introduction and CV

writing

Job interview management

Time management and

organization.

Presentation skills.

Goal identification.

Relationship building at

work.

Entrepreneurship skills

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ratio, IV curves, MPPT etc...

Effect of environment on the

performance and the IV

(shading, radiation soiling,

etc...

Advantages and

disadvantages of PV,

Physics solar energy balance

water heaters

Types of solar water heaters

and sizing calculation

calculation

Introduction to the

legislations and codes that

regulate the work in solar

energy in Jordan

Electrical companies’

requirements for issuing

license to connect RE

system to the grid

Pre-installation’s

calculation, documentation

and drawing

Single line diagram.

Installation at site.

Testing and inspection

Operation and inverter

sittings

As-built, documentation and

drawing

Maintenance (preventive,

failures, reactive)

Generating a business idea

Developing a business plan

Market analysis

Financial analysis

Realistic planning

Marketing

Costing and Pricing

Solar Market in Jordan;

current opportunities

futures trends

suppliers and logistics

RE companies and

registration

Market stake holders

Based on the educational objectives above one academic engineering course was updated and

four others were developed under project, the courses are:

1. Renewable Energy: updated by mEQUITY project and taught in Pilot I and pilot II

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2. Intro. to Energy Situation in Jordan: developed within mEQUITY project taught in

Pilot I and pilot II.

3. Photovoltaics (PV) Technology: developed within mEQUITY project taught in Pilot

I and pilot II.

4. Career orientation and Personal Development: developed within mEQUITY

project taught in Pilot I and pilot II.

5. Photovoltaics (PV) System Design: developed within mEQUITY project but was

not taught in the pilot.

The last four course are vocational training courses three of them were taught under the pilot.

To turn the educational objectives into tasks, DACUM technique was used. DACUM

(Developing A Curriculum) is a quick yet highly valid job analysis technique. The DACUM

process is used to determine the competencies that should be addressed in a training

curriculum for a specific occupation. This technique will extend the use of the MDR after the

course as it can serve as Performance support system for the students at the point of need

when they are employed.

Four professional engineers and two experience technicians were interviewed and were asked

to describe their daily tasks at work and were asked to identify what are the competencies that

they consider when interviewing new engineer for work. Based on the DACUM panel

recommendation, the tasks of the courses were developed. For detailed description of the

courses and the competencies please refer to tool no 17.

After Pilot I the tasks of the last course were finalized based on the feedback of the students

and a professional engineer who audited the course.

Agricultural engineering courses

1. Field Crops Production: updated by mEQUITY project and taught in Pilot I

2. Seed Production and Technology: updated by mEQUITY project and taught in pilot

II

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The above courses are academic B.Sc. labs offered by Department of Plant Production at

JUST for Agronomy students. The course consists of 12 lab activities. the students are

required to submit a report for each lab as a hardcopy as well as an electronic copy using the

DIPSIEL system.

Courses developed or updated within the mEQUITY project but was not part of the

pilot:

1. Internet of Thing course (IoT)

2. Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point Course (HACCP)

3. Concept mapping course,

4. Photovoltaics (PV) System Design

These courses were developed within mEQUITY project using the methodology of task-based

learning or performance-based learning for the targeted group above but were tough either

after the pilot (HACCP and IoT) or scheduled to be taught in the next semesters.

7.4.2 mEQUITY MDR Model at PSUT

Interactive Course for Disabled Students

• Developing interactive courses for disabled students covering basic skills such as

Drawing, Typing, Framing, Weaving, etc...

• QR-codes are scanned using a dedicated mobile app to download and play the lessons.

• Standalone mobile apps. can be downloaded from the DIPSEIL course management

system.

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Interactive Courses for Disabled Students

Our Lady of Peace Center for Special Education

Course contents/Development (QR codes designed)

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• Basic IT skills

• Typing

• Drawing

• Create files

• Saving files

• Open files

• Basic Health

• Teeth brushing

• Segments

• Recognizing Letters, Numbers and Animals

Remote Communication Lab Platform

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• General multi I/O board.

• The board is equipped with multiple communication systems experiments.

• Users can select and operate the desired experiment using DIPSEIL course

management system.

• DIPSEIL is loaded with a user interface coded with *.html pages.

• System paradigm emphasizes easy selection and execution of the desired experiment.

System Hardware

• The experimental circuits were built using National Instruments ELVIS® hardware.

• The virtual instruments are implemented using LabView® platform.

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• A dedicated server is used to cater for users connecting to the experiments through the

DIPSEIL course management system.

List of Experiments on the DIPSEIL eLearning Platform

A Sample Experiment Uploaded as html into DIPSEIL

58


7.4.2 mEQUITY MDR Model at UJ

Target Group 1: Al- Amal School for Deaf students.

Lessons:

(7) Lessons in Biology: The cell, chromosomes, circulatory system, digestive system,

respiratory system, bacteria, viruses and the seedless plants.

(3) Lessons in Geology: Earthquakes, the solar system, the water cycle and volcanoes.

(7) Lessons in Physics. States of matter, simple machine, the eye and reflection of

light.

(3) Lessons in Chemistry : The 1st group elements, the 2nd group elements and

hydrocarbon compounds.

Taking into consideration the needs of the target students, the QR codes technology was

adapted, as it is the best method to serve our purpose.

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Preparing Plan Scenarios:

Based on the sample plan scenario sent by the project coordinator, and after adapting it to

become convenient with the strategic plan and scenarios used in the school.

In total (20) Plan Scenarios were prepared in both Arabic and English language illustrating

the objectives; expected outputs; tools to be used; strategies; lessons flow( students role and

teacher role) and the resources.

Plan scenarios and recourses for the (4) subjects are uploaded to the PMC<02-

Implementation<Pilot experiment and analysis < UJ< Plan Scenarios.

Sample plan scenario in Biology: The cell and its types

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Methodology:

First category: develop illustration videos and educational supplemental material for

students (that includes sign language) and linking the scientific content of their regular

lessons with the technology using quick response codes (QRC).

Second category: develop illustration videos and educational supplemental material

translated to Arabic language and distributed free of charge.

61


Video processing and Editing:

In this stage illustration videos and educational supplemental material for students (that

includes sign language) were developed and linked with the scientific content of their regular

lessons and the technology using QR codes. The Arabic subtitles as text and the Arabic sign

language interpreter were added to the video via video editing software CAMTASIA.

Synchronization between the video running, the Arabic subtitles and the sign language

interpreter was a challenging problem.

Screen shot for editing a video on Earthquakes and Richter scale showing the video, the

Arabic Subtitles and the Arabic Sign language Interpreter

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Relevant videos, subtitles, text, sign language

An Edited video Showing the three part: the demonstration Video, the Arabic Subtitles and

the Arabic Sign Interpreter running synchronously.

63


The Process of recording The Arabic Sign language Interpretation.

Students at the School of Engineering-UJ (Dipseil)

Advanced Renewable Energy Systems:

This course was offered during 1st Semester of the academic year 2017/2018 for master

students at the Mechanical Engineering Department and taught by Prof. Ahmed Al-Salaymeh.

The number of students enrolled in the course was 23 students from different backgrounds.

Dipseil V3<mEQUITY teacher< Advanced Renewable Energy Systems

Modules/Tasks are available at: http://env.dipseil.net/v3/editor/courses.php

64

http://env.dipseil.net/v3/editor/courses.php


Renewable Energy/Special topics in Thermals:

This course was offered during 1st Semester of the academic year 2017/2018 for bachelor


The number of students enrolled in the course was 68 Students.

Dipseil V3<mEQUITY teacher< Special Topics in Thermals-RES


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Digital Signal Processing:

This course was offered during 2nd Semester of the academic year 2017/2018 for bachelor

students at the Electrical Engineering Department and taught by Prof. Dia Abu Al-Nadi. The

number of students enrolled in the course was 27 Students.

Dipseil V3<mEQUITY teacher< Digital Signal Processing


66



Signals and Systems:


students at the Electrical Engineering Department and taught by Dr. Ghazi Al-Sukkar. The


Dipseil V3<mEQUITY teacher< Signals and Systems


67



Electrical Engineering Principles:


students at the Electrical Engineering Department and taught by Dr. Ghazi Al-Sukkar. The


Dipseil V3<mEQUITY teacher< Electrical Engineering Principles.


68



Fluid Mechanics Lab (3 sections)




Dipseil V3<mEQUITY teacher< Fluid Mechanics Lab.


69



Photovoltaic –PV:

This course was offered during 2nd Semester of the academic year 2017/2018 for master



Dipseil V3<mEQUITY teacher< Photovoltaic –PV.


70



Special Topics –Renewable Energy Systems:

This course was offered during summer Semester of the academic year 2017/2018 for

bachelor students at the Mechanical Engineering Department and taught by Prof. Ahmed Al-

Salaymeh. The number of students enrolled in the course was 21 Students.

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Dipseil V3<mEQUITY teacher< Special Topics –Renewable Energy Systems.


Engineering Measurements Lab




72



Dipseil V3<mEQUITY teacher< Engineering Measurements Lab.


Thermal and Fluid Sciences Lab




73



Dipseil V3<mEQUITY teacher< Thermal and Fluid Sciences Lab.


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